just jaime

Every day feels like the day before. And this is something being universally felt around the globe as countries enact shelter-in-place rules. The basic rules are as follows: 1) Don't leave your house. 2) If you must leave your house, lest it be only for essential trips      a) Essential trips include: getting your socially distant (6ft/2m) daily breath of fresh air and picking up the items intended to keep you alive. 3) If you are a non-essential worker: stay home. 4) If you are an essential worker: thank you from the deepest depths of our hearts (and I'm sorry for how tough it has been). 5) Keep breathing. Keep breathing. Keep breathing. When this quarantine began, I was in the midst of a new job -- a three-month-part-time contract that was about to be extended and eventually, or rather the hope was, full-time. Now, due to lay-offs and concerns about how long this will go (and we all know it'll go for much longer), I'm about to be unemployed once a...

Hello! Long time, no see! I sort of forgot to keep posting about my time on exchange... that's my bad, y'all. Things got so hectic! Clearly, I survived my time abroad -- or else I wouldn't be here posting -- and it was a very rewarding experience where I learned a lot about myself. I will forever thank my lucky stars for the experience, even with all the ups and downs of being away from home. I definitely came back with more confidence and a renewed sense of purpose. Sorta. Anyways. Fast forward to 2019! And what a year it was. I went out for coffee with one of my close friends in early 2020 and when I joked about all the difficulties of 2019, she looked me in the eyes and said, very genuinely, "It really was rough, huh." And I guess it was. I tend to brush these things off with jokes, but I'm working to really work through the pain and issues that arise instead of pushing them down. I got my heart broken (a couple of times) but I also was filled with ...

Well, it's officially been a month since I've been on my own! While the distance has gotten easier, there are still days when my heart aches for home. Today is one of those days. But, I won't let the sadness get in the way of me enjoying my time here! Probably!! Since I've been here, my parents and I have skyped at least once a week (sometimes twice, sometimes thrice!) for an hour or so. I have seen glimpses of my brother, nothing of my sister (missing dat face), and of course, I force my parents to pick up Chewie (our dog) so I can see him. It always feels nice at the time to see them but once they're gone, my heart is a lil sad. There are only so many hours of the day I can talk to them and to my friends and I think that's what makes this especially hard. When I wake up, they're going to bed and when they wake up, it's evening already for me. But we're making it work! And I have some friends whose sleep schedule is whack (you know who you are ...

It's been over a week since I've arrived in the Netherlands and it's been a couple days since my parents and I parted ways: them back home to Canada and me back to my residence in Maastricht. It's strange to be away from home. Throughout the week I had my parents by my side to help navigate through the towns and through living abroad. Now that they're a 9-hour flight plus a 2.5-hour train ride away, it's suddenly hit me that I now have to navigate this alone. Although there's a huge international student population here in the city (meaning I'm probably not the only kid who's homesick after a week), it feels like everyone I've met is eager and excited to be here. Meanwhile, my brain is trying to convince me that coming here was all one big mistake. I know that in a few days -- or weeks --  I'll start to adjust to life on my own, but right now, it seems like an impossible task. Even though my parents have said that if I wanted to come home...

(Okay so technically a plane and not a jet but the sentiment remains the same.) My flight to the Netherlands is 10 days away and while I have started to pack, I am also a chronic over-packer so this will prove difficult!! PACKING IS HARD. Things to Accomplish: - MUST. CONSOLIDATE. WARDROBE. - DO. NOT. NEED. EVERYTHING. IN. CLOSET. - ONLY. PICK. FAVOURITE. SWEATERS. NOT. ALL. OF. THEM. (this will be the hardest part). - YOU. ONLY. NEED. A. FEW. PAIRS. OF. SHOES. - SAME. GOES. WITH. COATS. - VERSATILITY. IS. KEY. I gotta pack for three seasons though! When I arrive it'll be winter and then I have to be able to transition from winter to spring (easy enough) to SUMMER. It won't get extremely hot there, but I do have to be prepared. If worst comes to worst, I can just buy what I need there but because of who I am as a person, I would like to be as prepared as I can be. AND TO ADD SALT TO THE WOUND, my favourite pair of boots just got wrecked. Prayin'  I can get the...

Happy 2018, everyone. Hope your New Year's Eve was safe and fun and that you were able to enjoy the day. That you were able to look back at all that has happened in 2017 and reflect on how you pushed through the hard times and savoured the good. That you learned something new, whether through school or new experiences. That you looked, and continue to look, towards the new year with hope and aspirations, big and small. I hope that in 2018, you discover new things: - new music - new books - new friends -- or old friends coming back into your life - new information - new goals - new details of yourself I hope that in 2018, you find love: - self-love - friendships; platonic or romantic love - in nature - and any other love you may come upon or fight for. I hope that in 2018, your dreams become reality, and if they don't get there quite yet, there is still time. I find that looking back on what happened in 2017 helps to not only discover what I need to work on,...

I don't know if it's odd that I don't really tell people about the fact that I'm leaving for exchange. I only started out telling a few friends what I was doing (or trying to do) because if I had been rejected, I would have had to tell everyone I didn't get in. When I got nominated by SFU, I used the same reasoning. "I got nominated, but I haven't been accepted by my host uni yet!" When I got accepted I said, "Well, what if for some reason my student visa doesn't work out and then I'm not allowed to study there?" -- my student visa has been recently approved, by the way, so that's good news. When I got automatically enrolled in the Formal Exchange Program (FEP) and people asked me about course selection I deflected and asked them what courses they were planning on doing instead of talking about me.  When  I was told my leave of absence of work had been approved,  some coworkers started asking questions and I almost felt...